Copyright syracuse.com
The Syracuse City School District is poised to pay $250,000 for two former high-paid officials to keep working for the district after retirement. Superintendent Anthony Davis will retire Oct. 31. Former Chief Information Officer Timothy Moon retired this summer. The school board unanimously approved a consulting contract with Moon’s company, Silver Moon Data Compliance and Consulting, in August. The district will pay Silver Moon up to $125,000 over the course of two school years. On Nov. 12, the school board could approve a $125,000 contract with Davis’s company, TD22 Consulting. This contract would run until the end of the current school year. Davis declined multiple interview requests from syracuse.com via a spokesperson. None of the seven elected school board members would answer questions about the contracts. Michael Root, a former teacher running for the school board, called the contracts part of a “revolving door type of policy.” “It seems like they throw money around to the administration in the top level, and meanwhile they’re counting every dime and nickel when it comes to the TAs, the teachers and other school personnel,” Root said. The funds for Silver Moon Consulting come from the central data processing budget. The district plans to pay TD22 with money allocated for the chief school administrator budget. Root said he sees the contracts as a district problem, not necessarily about the two men involved. “Anthony Davis and Tim Moon, this isn’t their issue ... They’re doing nothing wrong,” Root said. When Davis announced his retirement, the school board announced it would appoint his top deputy, Pamela Odom to take over as superintendent. The district did not conduct a search for Davis’s replacement. Odom has worked in the district for 30 years. A spokesperson for the district, Amanda Malinowski, declined to make anyone from the district available for an interview. She answered questions by email, and said hiring back former officials isn’t out of the ordinary. She cited examples such as former Superintendent Jaime Alicea being hired at a different district and the Syracuse district bringing Dr. Jody Manning, a retired OCM BOCES superintendent, on as a consultant. But she did not give examples of former SCSD superintendents continuing to get paid by the city schools immediately upon retirement. Silver Moon Consulting will help implement a new network operation center, Malinowski wrote to syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. Davis would coach new high school principals and administrators. Silver Moon Consulting will record hours and submit a monthly invoice to the district, according to a district document. The district did not respond to questions about whether they sought bids for the consulting contracts. Davis made $255,000 while also collecting an $88,000 state pension during the 2023-2024 school year. Moon made more $183,000 that year. He said he is now collecting a state pension from his work in various school districts. Moon retired July 15, according to Malinowski. Tara Jennings, a former assistant superintendent of secondary schools, took over the position, according to the district website. Moon said that before he retired, he decided to start Silver Moon Consulting to continue his work without a full-time load. When creating the firm, Moon said he considered the possibility of working with SCSD, but had no formal arrangement in place. “I retired at 55. I’m ready to not have to put on a shirt and tie everyday. But the skillset required to understand the (New York State) reporting rules and requirements, it’s a unique skillset. It’s not something that everybody just has,” Moon said. Because of the timeline of his retirement, Moon said, he did not have time to train his replacements on the Student Information Repository System, which New York requires school districts to use. Since he has worked with SIRS for more than 20 years, he said, the district brought him on to assist for two years. “The district just opened a new network operation center this past year that Silver Moon Consulting can help implement and monitor for efficiency and effectiveness. This company has specific and integral knowledge of recent systems that the district is currently using,” Malinowski wrote. It’s unclear whether the school board discussed either contract. Davis’s contract was on the agenda for a September school board meeting. Minutes from that meeting say only that the board “briefly discussed” several consulting contracts, but do not provide details of the discussions. The minutes don’t say whether it was discussed publicly that the company is run by the superintendent. The board is expected to vote on Davis’s contract Nov. 12. Syracuse University education professor George Theoharis said it is normal for retired school administrators, including superintendents, to fill in administrative positions when needed — but it’s unusual for them to return to the same district. He acknowledged Davis’s contract is different as he is returning as a consultant, not an employee. While these contracts seem expensive, Theoharis said, school districts tend to spend a lot of money on consulting firms. “Certainly in the public eye, that’s a lot of money, right? It’s more than lots of folks make,” Theoharis said. “It’s not completely out of bounds for what a consulting contract could be in a small to medium urban district, which is what Syracuse is.”
